All of the material in this patent document is subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. The owner of the copyright has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems that transfer broadcast content to volatile and/or nonvolatile storage devices.
2. Background of the Invention
The capture of broadcast content gained major popularity with the advent of the VCR. A user was able to tune their television to a station that had a show that they wanted to save and they simply inserted a storage device (e.g., a VHS tape), moved the tape to the appropriate location, and began capturing the broadcast. Recently, other types of equipment have developed to perform similar functionality. These types of equipment include, for instance, DVD recorders (DVDR) and set top boxes that include digital video recorders.
Both of these types of equipment are used in a manner that is similar to the operation of VCRs. Each has its own storage device (i.e., a DVD or hard drive) and each storage device is of finite space. If a user is saving a long program, multiple programs, or begins saving the program when the storage device is nearly full, there is a chance that the program the user is trying to save will be lost. This is a frustrating problem for the average user, specifically when they want to save content when they are away from the home.
Saving broadcast content in its simplest form comprises turning on the television set and pressing a button on a VCR. More recently, VCRs, DVDRs, and digital video recorders (DVR), include interfaces which allow users to schedule the transfer of programs at a later date or time. Using this interface, the user is able to give the device a time and a channel and when it is the right time the device tunes to the channel, and begins saving the program. This is useful, for instance, when the user is away from home and wants to see the program later.
Another modern interface allows the user to focus on a favorite program. For instance, a user may love Monday Night Football, which occurs every Monday night from 6:00 P.M to 9:00 P.M. So, the user may wish to transfer this broadcast to a storage device regardless of whether they are home or not and may not want to have to instruct the machine every time. Using the interface, the user is able to set the system to save content for the three hours on Monday night when the football game is broadcast every week.
However, these schemes are inadequate because conflicts may arise in the scheduling system. Typically, a system is limited by the number of tuners it has. A one tuner system, for instance can either be used to save a program on a specific channel or watch the channel, however, the system cannot save content on one station and be used to watch another station. A two tuner system can be used to transfer and watch two different stations. Situations arise, however, where the system has been given instructions to transfer multiple shows simultaneously and there are not enough available tuners to perform this function.
One technique prioritizes shows scheduled to be transferred and when a conflict arises only the highest priority show is transferred. This technique is limited, however, because sometimes a user extends a timeslot in the transfer schedule to a few minutes before and a few minutes after the actual show. The user might do this because, for instance, they might want to save part of a pregame show for a sports event, or they might want to save content after a sports event, if it goes into overtime. Moreover, the system might automatically extend time slots by brief periods automatically to avoid missing content if the broadcaster""s clock and the system""s clock are out of sync or if the broadcast starts a few minutes early or late.
In such a case, a conflict may arise solely because of a user extended or automatically extended time slot. If these additional time slots are not treated as separate entites, unexpected results may occur. For instance a high priority first show may override a lower priority second show and cause the second show to not be saved merely because the first show overlapped the second show by an automatically extended minute or two. Such a result is clearly inadequate.
The present invention is directed to a video recorder having user extended and automatically extended time slots. An embodiment of the present invention includes a set top box having an internal storage device, such as a hard drive where broadcasts are transferred from a broadcast input source to the storage device and are played back from the storage device to an output device, such as a television or computer monitor. The set top box displays a graphical user interface (GUI) and an interactive program guide (IPG) on the output device. The IPG displays a list of shows that are available by tuning to different channels at different times as well as descriptions and details about each show. The GUI allows the user to navigate through the IPG, for instance, by viewing different times and dates for broadcasts, and also allows the user to view the shows that are scheduled to be transferred to the storage device in the future, and the shows that have already been transferred to the storage device.
The GUI also allows the user to utilize a video recorder, for instance by navigating the IPG and selecting broadcasts to later transfer to the storage device. The user may select one or more broadcasts, or may repeatedly transfer the same program in a series to the storage device. The user has the option to extend the time slot, in which a show is scheduled to be transferred to the storage device. The time slot may be extended before the show, after the show, or both. The system also implements an automatic extension of the time slot by default. Automatically extended time is used to ensure that the data is completely captured to the system, in case the broadcast time and the set top box time are slightly out of sync or the broadcaster unexpectedly begins a show""s broadcast slightly early or late.
Each show is given a priority either automatically or manually. Each user extended and automatically extended timeslot is also prioritized. When a conflict arises, the present invention generates solutions to the conflicts. When a conflict is merely multiple shows that overlap, various factors are used to determine which show is the highest priority. When a user extended or automatically extended time slot causes a conflict, then the extended time slots are prioritized separately from the actual show and the algorithms attempt to resolve conflicts by removing user extended or automatically extended time slots.
In one embodiment, where there are several solutions to a conflict, the system automatically finds the shows that, when removed from the transfer schedule, will result in the most shows of the highest priority to be transferred. Typically the system will present one or two of the most optimal shows to remove from the schedule to achieve a good solution. In another embodiment, an adjacent show list is implemented. The adjacent show list contains metadata for the shows immediately before and after a scheduled show. The adjacent show list is used to disable user extended time for parental control reasons, so that an unauthorized user is not able to extend the transfer into the body of another show that they are not permitted to capture.